Month: August 2012

When it comes to video games, I have a very peculiar taste. I don’t like playing games online other than Team Fortress 2. I don’t like the majority of the big games that come out these days. I’m one of very few people who are very happy that Spike from Sony’s Ape Escape series made it into Sony Playstation All Stars Battle Royale.

I’d love to see Sony finally make an Ape Escape 4 but it most likely isn’t in the cards. Catching silly monkeys while traveling through time and space just doesn’t appeal to today’s average gamer who would rather shoot guns at people online. It sucks to have an interest in things that the majority of people don’t. There’s not as much money in making the games that appeal to me.

I’ve been a fan of the Ape Escape series since the first game. A friend of mine brought it over during a sleep over. He told me that we couldn’t just use any old Playstation controller. We had to use the Dualshock, Sony’s new controller. You couldn’t play Ape Escape without it. The controller blew my young mind away. I still think Sony’s DualShock controllers are among the best in the game industry.

We spent the night playing Ape Escape. Boy oh boy. I had so much fun chasing monkeys around levels with a net and using a hula hoop to speed up. That sleep over is one of my favorite child hood memories. My friend moved away shortly after that. I still replay Ape Escape or its sequels at least once a year. It’s an indulgence in nostalgia for me. Seeing Spike end up in one of Sony’s big games for the year makes me glad. It’s nice that the franchise hasn’t been forgotten even though it really doesn’t have a place in Sony’s current plans.

Spike standing next to the likes of Kratos in this new game really shows the contrast between the direction of Sony now and how it used to be. Kratos is a murderous demi-god who killed his own wife and child before setting off on a vengeful journey filled with blood, sex, and gratituitos violence. Spike is just a kid whose job it was to catch monkeys wearing pants.

Movies are discussed and broken down by everyone who watches them. This always leads to the inevitable statement that “This movie is better than that movie” I’ve seen a lot of this in the discussion of two movies, Marvel’s The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises.

I’ve read so many articles, comments, and discussion threads comparing the two films. I’ve heard the argument that Nolan’s Batman Franchise aren’t just superhero movie like The Avengers and that’s what makes them better. There is a deeper meaning behind the explosions in The Dark Knight Rises than The Avengers. The realism and lack of CGI makes them better films. I’ve read about how The Avengers stays closer to the spirit of the comics and that’s what makes it better. It doesn’t try to pretend that it isn’t a superhero and that’s what makes it better.

The fans of both movies have been going at it for months. They’ve both been trying to find an objective way to prove the superiority of the film that they enjoyed more. Can such a thing be done? Can you say for sure that a movie is objectively better than another one? Opinions are subjective, so how does one prove their opinion right?

What is an objective way to settle which movie is better? Is it by comparing the amount of money made? Both movies have had success at the box office. The Avengers has made a lot more money than The Dark Knight Rises. Although The Dark Knight Rises was not available in 3D and had a shooting on its premiere night thus hurting its potential to make money. Besides if you try to settle which movie is better by comparing the amount of money made, Avatar becomes the best movie ever. That just doesn’t seem right.

How else can you compare them objectively? The consensus of those who reviewed them?

I’ve looked at the Rotten Tomatoes of both movies. It appears here that The Avengers has won. More reviewers found that Avengers was good. At a glance, it appears that The Avengers is the superior film. However when I take a look at another review aggregating site MetaCritic, things look a bit different.

I’m not certain which site holds more weight in the argument. From what I can tell, there is no objective way to prove which of these movies is superior. The discussion is just two sides holding their chosen position and not budging. In the end, a lot of discussion comparing things end this way. Nothing is accomplished. People enter the discussion with their position and exit it with the same position. Why do people feel the need to discuss things when they know they’ll never change their mind or the mind of the person that they’re talking to? It’s a pointless struggle.